It is important to understand recreational anglers’ motivations for fishing in order to predict when, where, and how they interact with species that can be sensitive to overfishing. So far, few studies have investigated angler motivation in recreational fisheries that are extremely distant from their angler population, require specialized angler skill, and pose other barriers to participation like high travel and equipment costs. We collectively refer to
these as “high-threshold” fisheries and explore angler motivation and its implications for anglers’ decision-making in one particularly remote example, the Mongolian fly fishery for endangered taimen, Hucho taimen, the largest salmonid in the world. We used a mixed-methods approach that enriched discrete choice experiments with in-depth qualitative interview data to investigate anglers’ motivations for participating in the taimen fishery, their satisfaction with the fishing experience, and their stated interest in participating in the fishery in the future. We found that anglers preferred fewer high-quality, trophy-sized fish to a higher catch rate of smaller taimen, but that activity-general factors like the opportunity to travel to an “exotic” wilderness destination were also highly motivating. The anglers we sampled were all first-time taimen fishermen and many were bucket-list
anglers who sought a wide variety of fishing tourism experiences throughout their lifetime and therefore and had no intention to return to the taimen fishery. Instead, these fishermen selected their future trips from among a set of similarly remote, specialized, and costly fisheries throughout the world, especially in developing countries. We argue that these high-threshold fisheries should not be studied in isolation but instead would benefit from a unified research approach that accounts for their unique traits and shared angler population.
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Experimental demonstration of catch hyperstability from habitat aggregation, not effort sorting, in a recreational fishery
The relationship between angler catch rates and fish abundance can contribute to or hinder sustainable exploitation of fisheries depending on whether catch rates are proportional to fish abundance or are hyperstable. We performed a whole-ecosystem experiment in which fish abundance was manipulated and paired with weekly angler catch rate estimates from controlled experimental fishing. Catch rates were hyperstable (β = 0.47) in response to changes in fish abundance. By excluding effort sorting (i.e., catch rates remaining high because less skilled anglers leave the fishery as abundance declines), our experiment isolated the influence of fish aggregation as a driver of hyperstability. Spatial analysis of catch locations did not identify clustering around specific points, suggesting that loose aggregation to preferred habitat at the scale of the entire littoral zone was enough to maintain stable catch rates. In our study, general, non-spawning, habitat preferences created loose aggregations for anglers to target, which was sufficient to generate hyperstability. Habitat preferences are common to nearly all fishes and widely known to anglers, suggesting that many harvest-oriented recreational fisheries can be expected to exhibit hyperstability.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1716066
- PAR ID:
- 10181837
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
- Volume:
- 77
- Issue:
- 4
- ISSN:
- 0706-652X
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 762 to 769
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Abstract Catch‐and‐release (C&R) angling is often used to maintain high catch rates but fish vulnerability to capture may decrease following hooking, thereby decreasing angler catch per unit effort (CPUE) (hyperdepletion). To determine if fish post‐capture response affected recapture probability and population‐level CPUE, individual capture histories of Largemouth Bass in two lakes were compared before and after doubling angling effort in a Before‐After Control‐Impact (BACI) analysis. Previous capture and day‐of‐season both affected recapture probability. Counteracting effects of previous capture and reduced late‐season catch rates caused no hyperdepletion of angler CPUE. Our results highlight the complexity of fish behavioral responses to angling and suggest that hyperdepletion of angling catch rates may not be an issue in C&R fisheries.
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Freshwater recreational fisheries regulations are a vital tool for achieving social and ecological fisheries objectives. However, angler behavior and fish biology may interact to influence regulation efficacy in unexpected ways. We combined models of fish growth and angler behavior to explore how angler behavior interacts with fish life history to shape the probability of fish harvest given capture across ages, life-stages, and sexes of walleye (Sander vitreus). Compared to females, males grew more quickly as juveniles, matured earlier, and reached smaller maximum sizes. Male walleye were therefore vulnerable to harvest for more of their reproductive lives than females because males spent more time at sizes where anglers were very likely to harvest them. We suggest that restricting harvest of large individuals in sexually-dimorphic species may favor the survival of large, reproductive-aged females. Moreover, we show that combining models of fish growth and harvester behavior can provide insights into how harvest affects fish with complex life histories over the course of their lives.more » « less
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Growing interest in apps to collect recreational-fisheries data requires that relationships between self-reported data and other fisheries data are evaluated, and that potential biases are assessed. This study compared results from a mobile-phone application and website for anglers (MyCatch) to results from three types of fisheries surveys — 1 provincial-level mail survey, 2 creel, and 17 gillnet surveys. Results suggest that an app and website can (i) recruit users that have a broad spatial distribution that is similar to conventional surveys, (ii) generate data that capture regional fishing patterns (2218 trips on 289 lakes and 90 streams or rivers), and (iii) provide catch rate estimates that are similar to those from other fisheries-dependent surveys. Some potential biases in app users (e.g., urban bias) and in the relative composition of species caught provincially were identified. The app was not a suitable tool for estimating fish abundance and relative community composition. Our study demonstrates how apps can or cannot provide a complementary data-collection tool for recreational-fisheries monitoring, but further research is needed to determine the applicability of our findings to other fisheries contexts.more » « less
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Abstract In this essay, we explore the idea that slow social change may cause degradation of the open access equilibrium in recreational fisheries. An existing bioeconomic model illustrates how three social quantities in the recreational fisheries social–ecological system—the marginal cost of fishing effort, catchability, and the relative importance of catch and effort to angler utility—influence equilibrium fish abundance. We speculate that slow directional changes in all three of these quantities may be common, driving gradual declines in abundance that may be difficult to detect. We present limited evidence in support of this speculation, highlight the need for further empirical work, and discuss the implications of slow social change for resilient management of recreational fisheries in a changing world.
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1139/cjfas-2019-0245
